China’s First Female Paratrooper Donates Her Lifelong Savings of 10mil Yuan ($1.5mil) to Her Hometown

Not only is she China’s first female paratrooper, but she’s a scholar and a medical doctor too!

China’s first female paratrooper has decided to donate her lifelong savings to her hometown in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province to help with the education endeavors there.

Ma Xu, 83, participated in the Korean War and trained as a military doctor. Since retiring, she has set her mind to donate over 10 million yuan (1.5 million US dollars) to Mulan County.

Her generous gesture, however, reportedly caused concern among the bank staffers, who were handling the transaction last month and feared Ma might have fallen victim to swindlers because of her old age and the large sum of money she was giving away.

They called the police, who verified the purpose of Ma’s transaction and the identity of the payee, and allowed her to continue her deed.

She presented three million yuan to her, with the remaining seven million to be released next year.

Ma joined the People’s Liberation Army in 1947 and participated in the Korean War in 1950. She was then trained as a military doctor and worked at a military hospital in Wuhan City, central China’s Hubei Province.

The turning point of Ma’s life occurred when she joined the then newly formed Chinese airborne troops in 1961 as a medical supporter, after which she was trained as the country’s first female paratrooper.

It was never an easy task for Ma to achieve her training since there were no predecessors. However, she didn’t give up and kept training hard, completing her training in 1962.

In the following 20 years, she completed over 140 parachute jumps. Throughout her career, she was honored with several medals and also collected several records, including China’s first female paratrooper, female paratrooper with the most parachute jumps, and the oldest female paratrooper to parachute.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Ma has shared decades of knowledge and experience as a military doctor in the airborne troops by publishing more than 100 academic articles together with her husband since 1983. The pair also worked together to perfect parachuting equipment and invented new devices, such as the inflatable ankle support and medical oxygen vest.

After retirement, an idea began to take shape – donating her lifelong savings to her hometown – as Ma had no kids and her parents had passed away.

Ma’s donations will be used for educational, cultural and charity purposes in her hometown because she believes that better education could boost the county’s future development.